This is my first time in a LONG time posting something original in a forum, let along a fanfic! So please forgive me! I didn't give much detail about the farmer because it'd ruin the flow a little too much. Just know it's under a little headcanon I have about MY farmer, Sina. -- “That is one huge set of melons.” Shane took a heavy slurp of his beer, letting his “clever” line sink in and soaking up the glaring eyes of both his aunt and the farmer. The farmer, Sina, went back to lightly tapping one of the giant melons in awe. He had no idea how it happened, but yesterday his ground produced not one, but two giant melons at once. If it hadn’t been raining, he would have gathered the help he did today. “I just- I don’t… How?” Marnie, in all her surprise, seemed more than pleased. Smiling brightly she approached Sina, patting shoulder enthusiastically. “You have quite the talent for this! Your first summer here, and already you produced such wonderful crops!” “When you said you needed help with something heavy, I thought you were referring to something simple.” “Hey, this morning I said I think I needed the whole town to help,” Sina defended, trying to reach the top of the melon. He wasn’t able to. “You’re the one that wanted to be macho and take care of it yourself.” “...” Shane didn’t respond, glowering at nothing in particular in his peripherals and downing the rest of his beer. Jas, who was happily playing with your dog, caught his attention and he focused on the scene. “She’s going to be late for her class with Penny.” Marnie became alert, realizing Shane was right. “Oh! We should probably head back before Penny arrives!” She turned to Sina, smiling reassuringly. “Don’t worry, Mr. Sina. I’ll talk to Lewis and he’ll bring everyone he can after work.” Sina groaned through tight lips, nodding. What could even be done with melons this size? -- “Holy shi-oooot!” Pam barely managed to correct herself, earning disapproving looks from Shane and Jodie, who both made an effort to cover their respective kids’ ears. Sam almost snickered, but was smart enough not to next to his mother. “It’s so big, daddy!” Sina’s little tot of a daughter exclaimed, hugging one of the melons with her tiny arms. Sina found it cute enough to briefly get over his anxiety. When Marnie said Lewis would get who he could, he didn’t think he would gather the attention of the entire town. Everyone was more than willing to make the hike to the new farmer’s land to see the sideshow attraction. “I have to concur with the little one!” Elliot sauntered up to the two crops, trying to hide his awkwardness of avoiding the rest of the melons grown around them. “It’s not every day something interesting like this happens in this quaint town.” He patted one of them, experiencing their coarse skin. “One of them looks almost as big as your house, dude.” Abigail agreed, looking behind her to your house to make sure she wasn’t exaggerating. She wasn’t too far off. “It’s a shame that the luau has already passed,” Lewis mused, rubbing his chin in thought. “This would have been a great treat for everyone.” “Oh that would have been wonderful!” Penny sighed dreamily, ignoring the sounds of disagreement from the two kids. “Gross,” Abigail counter-argued, and Sina could catch Haley nodding in agreement. “Still, it’s pretty cool to look at. I bet you’d win the fair if you could keep it from going bad.” “This could be worth so much!” Pierre circled the two melons. “Do you think I could have one of them?” “Your chickens would love some of this melon!” Marnie advised. From the corner of his eye, SIna can see through the iron fence to see the chickens doing their usual grazing. “Most farm animals just love sweet cold treats during the hot weather.” “Is this all we came to see?” George grumbled to his wife, far from pleased to have come here for seemingly nothing. Evelyn, bless her, remained serene as always. “So where do you want these?” Alex approached, looking to Sina with a cocky grin. “I can move them wherever.” “I assume you don’t mean by yourself!” Elliot put in, scoffing. “This is not a one-person job!” “I can see why the farmer needed help with her-his--uhm, sorry.” Demetrius was very quick to apologize, and Sina gave him a thumbs up before he continued. “With his crops. By the size of these melons, just combined it has to weigh about-” “It’s going to be heavy.” Clint interrupted, snapping out of his awkward state. He didn’t realize Demetrius was talking and was confused at the frown he gave him. “Before we move it, Sina should probably tell us what he wants with them.” Lewis reasoned, and everyone turned to Sina. “Have you figure out what to do with these?” “U-uhm…” Sina stared in hesitance, picking up Ami and holding her in his arms before she could start kissing the melon and getting dirt in her mouth. There were a few suggestions already, but he didn’t know what to do in the end. This was not something he ever even fathomed would happen. It wasn’t a bad thing, but now all these people were looking to him… He looked to the melons, then back to the crowd. “I think I have an idea, actually…” -- “And.. Heave!” With Sina giving the command, Leah, Marnie, Robin, and most of the men pushed the smaller of the two toward the house. Willie and Pierre held back, working with the remaining people to clear by moving the harvested crops out of the way. Penny sat on Sina’s porch, holding Ami in her lap and sitting with the kids and the dog. Maru was on the other side, guiding the movers with her voice and direction. “Heave!” Thankfully, melons were round and it was just a matter of rolling it. The hard part was keeping it from wobbling off course and to get the initial inertia going. “The weight of this thing is abhorrent!” Elliot griped. “At least it’s not a cube!” Gus mused. “Or a pyramid,” Sebastian added. “Heave!” “You guys are doing great, just a little more!” “A little more my foot,” Leah argued. “We’ve barely left the soil!” “Heave!” After a lot of fussing and barely censored cussing, they managed to finally get the first melon to rest against the side of the farmhouse. The movers were, understandably, a little strained. “Dang…” Sam was (un)gracefully splayed out on his back, with Sebastian sitting down next to him and leaning on his arms for support. “That’s actually a pretty good workout,” Alex stretched out his arms, already set to move the other one. “Yes, though I’m not as fit as I used to be.” Lewis wiped the sweat from his brow using his sleeve. “You’re all doing great,” Penny said softly. “YOU DID IIIIT!” Ami shouted, earning a reinvigorated sigh from her father. “Thanks to my favorite cheerleader.” Sina took Ami from Penny gently, smooching her cheek and earning her arms around his neck. “Thanks to all of you, really--I never thought this stuff could be done.” “Well, everyone helps each other out in this little community.” Lewis said, proudly. “And you’re part of Pelican Town now, so we’re happy to help.” Sina smiled back, relieved and a little bashful. “Alright, lets move the last one.” He couldn’t complain when most of them groaned. He felt the same way. -- “I can’t feel my arms…” Sina shook out his arms, as if he could shake out the soreness. Sure, he’s gotten stronger since becoming a farmer, but unlike Alex he wasn’t exactly into actively working out. “The amount of teamwork we can pull together is astounding!” Elliot was a little worse for wear, trying to soothe his sweat-soaked locks. He was sitting like everyone else, though unlike most of them he sat on the steps of the porch with Haley and Evelyn. “I really need to make sure that feeling is translated in my book…” he drifted off, ideas already bouncing around in his head. “I’m getting a little too old for this…” Clint was controlling his breathing. “Wow, what are you going to do with these anyway?” Emily whistled at the size of them now that they were measured against the house. “You didn’t tell us!” “It’s a surprise,” Sina said, putting his hand on one of the melons and and leaning on it slightly. “But I think I’ll work on it tomorrow…” He looked to the exhausted or bored townsfolk, rubbing the back of his head. “Thank you guys so much. I don’t know how I can ever even-” “You don’t need to worry about that.” Marnie was beaming. Robin nodded, peachy. “It’s like what Lewis said. We’re all here to help.” “Just remember to return the favor once in a while!” Caroline was cleaning her hands with her skirt, not caring if it got a little smudged. “Promise!” -- Sina wasn’t seen for a while after that. And it didn’t go unnoticed. Sina would always come to town as often as he could, whether to sell goods, to buy ore, to give gifts or to donate to the museum, little Ami in tow or in her stroller. No one was overtly-concerned. It was noticed, but not worrying. While some were concerned, they figured Sina would come by to restock on groceries like he always does on Saturdays. -- Saturday came, but Sina didn’t. So matters were taken to hand. “Sina?” Well, the farm was still intact. So whatever was going on, Sina was at least doing his work still. That was a good sign. “Sina, are you there?” Lewis knocked a little louder, passively hoping he wasn’t being too forceful. The door opened, and he was rewarded to a very unflattering, disheveled version of his new resident. “You look terrible! … Are you ill?” Sina shook his head, awkwardly bending his arm to wiped his eye with a clean part of his skin. “No, just… very busy.” His hand and wrists were stained in red, as well as his white tanktop. “Making juice..?” Lewis’ eyes naturally shifted to the cause of events before. One of the melons was completely gone, while the one that remained was half gone, covered with an entire box worth’s of saran wrap over the top. “Wow! You’re really working at those melons!” Sina just gave a dry smile, more than a little cranky. He’s been working tirelessly to make sure the crops weren’t wasted, but juggling that with the usual farm work and his baby girl’s needs, it didn’t make much room for sleeping. “Yeah!” “I just wanted to check in on you to make sure you were alright! No one has seen you or Amisis in a while, we were starting to get concerned.” Sina took a moment to let that sink in. “...What day is it?” “Saturday.” “Crap!” Sina slapped a hand over his mouth before making sure Amisis wasn’t nearby. Thankfully, she was napping in your bed. “I barely kept track, I’m sorry I promised to bring Willy-” He stopped when Lewis waved his hand dismissively. “They’ll be happier to know you’re alright, don’t worry. You can get to them when you’re able to them, right?” “Y-yeah…” Sina gave a yawn, jerking his neck side to side to pop it. “Sorry for worrying you…” “I can’t wait to see what you’re doing with all that melon! But don’t push yourself, alright?” After the quick goodbye, Lewis started walking off, giving a quick wave as he left the property. Sina closed the door, looking into the mess of a kitchen. With a heavy sigh, he smiled. He was glad he came here. -- “Hey, Sina!” Pierre threw his arms out in greeting from behind the counter, gaining his family’s attention. “Dude, we thought you died or something!” Abigail smiled, before noticing how tired Sina looked. “Whoa..” Sina sauntered over to the counter, gingerly setting down the jar he was carrying. And proudly, he asked. “How much can you give me for 352 jars of melon jam?”
Shane's not the only one whose mind went there! And the 352 jars of melon jam... I'm beginning to feel like that with my blueberry, cranberry, corn and hot pepper harvests. I was clearing out my fridge a bit in-game and dumped 200-some blueberries into my shipping box, and those were just the regular ones
